Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Thank you all for constantly supporting my work and also my
last few projects have got their due by being” featured” in various blog. Am so
happy…

Today’s project has been in my” To Do” for a long time now.
I have been wanting to do this Faux patina technique on a wooden box but have not been able to get the box that I
wanted so I went ahead and did the same on this….

I had a Buddha statue in metal, one of my first purchases
when I got newly married and was setting up a house! I wanted to make a proper
display for it…I had this picture in mind, of a metal box, weathered and old
with texture on it and some soft
lighting to highlight the texture and colors of the box. At same time, I wanted
the whole thing to radiate calmness and peace …would that be possible??? Well
with all this in mind, I set out experimenting, this time I was just going with
my heart’s desire…the final visual was very clear and I was just working to
make that REAL!

And this is the outcome!

Now for the details on the making!

2 coats of gesso and then coloring with turquoies acrylics and then texture with TCW damask stencil and home made texture paste.

I did some crackling in some areas. Then came layers of paint in gold, copper, brown, black and turquoise to get the "patina" look!

I then cut out small tiles from the body of the box. These tiles are 2.5" X 3" and got some lovely Buddha images with quotes from google and decoupaged it to the tile. The tile was then edged with copper and gold heat embossing and peacock feather DI. Also fixed gold eyelets on the top and bottom of the tile.

At this stage, I hand dyed some natural twine in peacock feather DI and also applied gold paint in spots. This twine was used to tie up the tile in the slots! How cool is that?

Since the box was bright with the copper and gold hues, I wanted the embellishments to be minimal and not take away the beauty of the technique and the textures...I made some pure white lace flowers to depict the calmness and purity associated with Buddha. For the flower centers have used dried berries from the garden!

At the base of the box, I adhered a vintage trim with mini coconut shell beads . some of them are painted in copper too! the box has turquoise bottle cap feet too!

And now comes the dramatic effect...I placed led candles behind the tiles and when switched on...it's gives the perfect warm glow for this setting. I was just not able to get the right pic for this...hope you can visualize!

And if this is not enough...there is small surprise behind the tile! yes, it can be turned around to have a different set up if you are bored with the first look! Yes a reversible shadow box!

For the back of the tiles, I photocopied some vintage quotes on friendship and stuck them inked them the same way.

Phew! that's it from me. Thank you so much for your patience to scroll till the bottom. I am super excited about this project and wanted to share everything about it!

Do let me know what
you think of today’s project? Do you think I did justice to the visual I had in
mind? My soul is happy with this creation and this is sitting pretty in my
living room now!

Tuesday, 19 August 2014

Some wonderful challenges happening this month, which has
made me think “out of the box” and I enjoyed every bit of this project. I
recently bought my window die (IO dies) and can’t get enough of it! I have
wanting to use the die in different ways and please bear with me, cos you are
going to be seeing a lot of windows in the days to come!

Wow! This just pushed my creative thinking to come up with
the base idea for this project! To make the cube, I just carefully opened up a
drinks carton and cut it at 3.5” to make one! It was ready…I just needed to
make a lid to size and work on the alteration! Wanted a shabby chic look this
time.

I have used the Urban cling rubber stamp and gave a coat of
gesso over it and stamped on the PP. Voila, my first gesso stamping and I just
loved it. The pink and white combo was just perfect.

The same bg stamp was used
to stamp on the window using Archival inks.

Used mini mister to spray ink on the window and also used
the Cracks stencil from Prima and the spray to work on the window wall. Isn’t
that cool! Dried it up soon with a heat gun to avoid a lot of running up and
other mess!!!

Do you even need to tell me? All my projects have a re
cycled item, and this is no exception! The main structure of this project is
using an empty drinks carton and have used pieces of fruit net to form the bed
for the mini garden on the lid! The lid itself is made with corrugated
cardboard from packaging.

Now, with all this in mind for doing the project, what do
you expect will be the outcome??? Have a look…

Hope you liked it! Do let me know what you think of this
deco piece that glows in the night!

A closer look at the window, the window pane is an acetate sheet from die packaging and have used the wood texture embossing plate to give some texture!

The walls inside have space to insert tags and there is lots of room for a mini to slip inside the house too! Will be doing that soon. Couldn't help sharing this right away!

I am a hoarder of trash and proud to be
so..I have always had friends asking me as to why I fuss over so much on
altering a recycled item, so much work, loading it with embellies and so on… to
me, it’s simple, when life gives you a second chance, won’t you make the best
of it!

Thank you all so much for the lovely responses on my “trunkload of memories”… and those who took time to leave a comment too! It sure
motivates me and here I am with another mini 3D project!

I am sure all of you love monsoons and what happens when you
are caught indoors and it’s poring outside??? I love to sit by the window with
my fav cuppa and drown myself on the scene outside…the pitter patter of the
rain, the fresh green color of the leaves, the flowers all dripping with
droplets of water…the butterflies and birds fluttering and shuddering the water
off them…such a beautiful sight. “Rain makes everything beautiful”…that’s my
project for you today.

A mini window scene that measures 4”X5” and have re
cycled some carpentry remains(wooden block) and burlap piece by ripping a gunny
sack and treating it to be used as canvas!

Here it is…are you ready with your cuppa?

creted some texture on tha oanel with TCW mini bricks stencil and home made texture paste. later inked it with DI fired brick and peeled paint to give the mossy look.Edged the panel with lime green acrylic paints to "liven"it up!

My first time with stamping on vellum! Have heat embossed the butterflies in black and white and colored with the markers. They turned out to be beauties

and look so real on the project! Love the transparency ov vellum and the color seen on the other side, makes it REAL.

The window are heat embossed in white(2 coats) and have place a PP behind. the curtains cheese cloth misted with mustard seed DI.Made a miniature window trough for the planter and loaded it with blooms made from TH tatterd florals(smallest flower)! Aren't they cute...the leaves are punch cuts.

The top of the panel has a bed of feathers and looots of handmade flowers made using Joy crafts and TH dies. with all the butterflies taking their position, the panel just comes to life!

The panel is just bigger then my palm! I have hung 2 metal charms an umbrella and a tea pot (don't you love your cuppa when it rains???) and the hand written quote is from google.

Hope you can see the fresh droplets of rain water! added random spots of glossy accents to get this look on the entire panel.

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to
appreciate, that will make me come back with another project soon!

Saturday, 9 August 2014

Am happy happy, Mr.mojo finally decided to visit my craft room...I was a little low on creativity the last few days and feeling low on that count, BUT not now!!!
Before I get too excited, would like to thank all of you who stop by my blog, leave their comments and also those who follow my work, hope to keep you all happy too!
I enjoyed today's project to its every stitch!! I love doing miniatures and this is double bonanza cos I made a mini suitcase with an empty soap carton and then a mini album inside it too! LOVE...
You may wonder why I took the trouble of altering a soap carton and not just score a CS and startt...but that's the joy of re cycling! You have to experience it.
I have used the Prima, sunrise sunset paper line for this and the colors are pinks, yellows, greens and tinges of brown to keep it vintage! I have machine stitched the PP to the card stock to make signatures and then hand stitched them to the box.
Loved the distressing and inking and using my new TH alteration die(hardware findings).
As the title suggests, there is space for a lot of pictures, journaling and tags too ...literally trunk loads! So come lets go on a summer vacation ladies...ready!

I have heat embossed the handle and the hardware findings die cut in green and fixed it with white brads. the mini lock and key is resin charm using the mod mold and then colored in black and rubbed with Inka gold..the rusted metallic look.

The box when open...couldn't resist fixing the dashing pink flower made using TH tarred florals and Georgette fabric. Some tiny tags here...

The last box lid too has space for tag inserts and a vintage pocket watch too!

The feminine tags inside with a lots of Tims techniques , swishing, swashing, flicking water and ghost stamping, dry embossing...

I had some vintage girlie pics and quotes which you can see on the other side of the tags. All tags are finally inked with walnut stain.

My box can stand on it's own legs...yes it has flat back pearls as feet!!!

The spine of the box is canvas cloth stamped with TH visual artistry( ruler) which is exactly an inch wide and perfect for this. The box sits too on pearly feet!

That's the end of the tour! Hope you enjoyed the summery vintage colors and Oh! so girlie suitcase! A great

travel companion right!

There you see it dangling from my finger! See ya..Bye.

Do let me know what you think of this mini. Thank you so much for stopping by.

Thursday, 7 August 2014

A warm welcome to all of you have stopped by my page and also to my new followers. Today’s project
is totally out of my comfort zone more
than 1 reason, have been hesitant but as I started working on it, it turned out
to be what I visualized!

Firstly, I have used some bright colors in this, very min
use of D inks, not my customary inked, twisted and molded flowers and lastly my
heat gun breathed its last( a local make)…which meant that my project had to
dry naturally! That also meant a lot of patience…which I managed.

The good thing in this is I have used a lot of scraps for
this project. The flowers especially are made from PP scraps. I adhered strips
of the same color family on to a paper and then ran it thru the die to make
flower. I saw Bhavana had done this and I knew I had to make this. Have alook…

Summer is all about bright colors, blooms and butterflies
and this being the theme in many challenges, I made this 3 tier butterfly
hanging. I got the template on 3 different butterflies from the net and cut it
out from empty cereal boxes as base. So, it was 3 shapes, 3 colors and e
different techniques for the butterflies!

Butterfly 1…

This is from CC from packaging and removed the first later
in place to reveal the corrugation. Then gave a coat of gesso and then crackle
paint and then a top coat of like green acrylic color. I loved the fresh
cracks! Stamped some script and postage images using archival ink. i also made a stamp using Joy cratfs v,vintage flourish die and stamped some foliage using green archival ink.

The birdcage
is from TH using Prima something blue paper line. How do you like the lovely black
feathers with white dots( using my uniball pen) ??? Bright flowers, flourishes and leaves add
more color to this big green butterfly! The lovely butterfly was stamped,
colored and laced with glitter! The quote is from the net and hand written.
This butterfly is edged with jute rope.

Butterfly 2…

This was cut on an empty cereal carton and then I adhered
red burlap cloth on it. Gave textures using TCW stencils and handmade texture
paste…had to wait for it to dry naturally to continue work. So got to do it the
next day only!

The embellishments here is around the lamp post from Cheery
lynn.

Butterfly 3…

For the texture in this, have used kitchen foil and created
the faux metal look and also used an embossing folder to give texture. As I was
doing this, my craft parcel with the heat gun arrived! I picked up speed now!
Have colored using alcohol inks( my first try) and then heat embossed the edges
in black.

Finally added a Chinese bell from my stash and have tied a shabby bow made from green checkered cloth from my stash.A dash of green on the top and bottom!!! I have
joined all the pieces with white paper rope to make a hanging and it definitely
adds color to my room! I may not shy from bright colors now…though it still is
not my style!

Thank you so much for stopping by and hope to hear your take
on this. Hope you are all enjoying your summer…